Snow doesn't stop supporters as South Lake Tahoe march draws 500

"This is incredible," said Heddy Kaufer of South Lake Tahoe as she joined an estimated crowd of 500 men, women and children for the Bi-State Women's March on Washington Lake Tahoe.

Like millions of others who marched around the world on January 21, the festive South Lake Tahoe group walked a three mile route from the Hard Rock Lake Tahoe to the Senior Center in support of not only women's rights, but all human rights.

As the long line of walkers were greeted by honks from cars, they chanted "Love, Not Hate, Makes America Great!"

The community members who came together were young, old, infants and children, men, women, showing how the South Shore community can come together in support of each other.

From the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 to Women's Marches around the world in 2017, the message was the same: Get involved to protect your freedoms.

Annie Davidson spoke at the end of the march Saturday, telling the gathered group, "If you care about the earth, get involved. If you care about your child and their future, get involved. If you care about your body, get involved. If you care about life, get involved."

Speaking prior to Davidson was Peg Kortes who took folks on a verbal history tour of women's rights from Seneca falls, through the suffragette movement of the 1800s, and trying to get the right to vote.

"I want to leave you with three thoughts," said Kortes. "First, women have been walking and advocating for a long time. Secondly, democracy is not a spectator sport, it is a participatory sport, and thirdly, we are threatened when we take a system for granted."

She said that now is the time to trust our fellow citizens and its a time to believe in each other.

The Soroptimist Club of South Lake Tahoe started the organization of the January 21 walk and expected perhaps 100 people, but ended up with an estimated 520.

Davidson asked everyone to take the energy from the day and get involved. "We have to do it for our children and ourselves," she said. She said it doesn't matter what the color of your skin is, what your gender is. "If you want equality, if your want democracy, then get involved."

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter," a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote Davidson shared as the appreciative crowd cheered.

"Tahoe women rock," said Brooke Laine, one of the organizers of the event, as the two speeches wrapped up after the walk.